Music and the Brain

Posted On: Thu Jul 23, 09 11:37 AM

How Important is Music to A Child’s Development?

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Over two decades ago researchers in the US began studying the link between learning ‘to read music and play the piano’, and ability in Math and Science.

This led to a ten year UCLA study comparing results for young students taking music versus students taking computer classes. Students learning to read music and play the piano scored significantly higher on Math and Science assessments.

Researchers then went on to prove that learning to read music and play the piano has other cognitive benefits. Hong Kong university of China discovered that not only does the regimen of learning to read and play music increase the rate of learning new vocabulary, but it results in a permanent increase in the learning rate. If the music learning process stops, the increased capacity is retained. If the challenging music program starts again, the rate of learning increases further.

This makes sense. Consider that reading music requires the student to look at music notation (an abstract symbol set) and decode it. Playing music requires that decoded information to be used to guide ten fingers on the piano keyboard. The brain is operating challenging receptive and productive processes simultaneously, which is good exercise for the cerebral cortex, and it soon causes permanent changes in this important area of the brain.

One recent MIT study determined that the cerebral cortex of a concert pianist is enlarged by 30% on average compared to people that are considered intellectuals, but who did not have instrumental music education. Another CA study found that 75% of Silicon Valley CEO’s had instrumental music education as a child.

There are several less-tangible, but important advantages to learning to read music and play an instrument. In one Chicago High School the dropout rate improved dramatically, two short years after a challenging music program was introduced to all students.

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